Hitchcock Quotes

[donna]

one I like.

***
The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
[ Funny Movie Quotes]

[Wee Sonny MacGregor]

I like the one about Tallulah Bankhead's lack of undergarments. Hitch: "I didn't know whether to send her to make up or the hairdresser".

[donna]

oh my god haha good one. yes a bit of a girl by all accounts

[Steve Crook]

Hitchcock Quotes

There is a dreadful story that I hate actors. Imagine anyone hating Jimmy Stewart . . . Jack L. Warner. I can't imagine how such a rumour began. Of course it may possibly be because I was once quoted as saying that actors are cattle. My actor friends know I would never be capable of such a thoughtless, rude and unfeeling remark, that I would never call them cattle . . . What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle.

[on his cameos] "One of the earliest of these was in The Lodger (1927), the story of Jack the Ripper. My appearance called for me to walk up the stairs of the rooming house. Since my walk-ons in subsequent pictures would be equally strenuous - boarding buses, playing chess, etc. - I asked for a stunt man. Casting, with an unusual lack of perception, hired this fat man!"

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.

To me Psycho (1960) was a big comedy. Had to be.

Even my failures make money and become classics a year after I make them.

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible

Drama is life with the dull bits left out.

[His entire acceptance speech for the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award] "Thank you."

[When accepting the American Film Institute Life Achievement award] "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat [Patricia Hitchcock], and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen. And their names are Alma Reville."

[Eva Marie Saint on Hitchcock] "He said, 'I don't want you going back to sink-to-sink movies. You do movies where you wash the dishes looking drab in an apron. The audience wants to see their leading ladies dressed up.' He saw me as others didn't."

[About Dario Argento and his film Profondo rosso (1975)] "This young Italian guy is starting to worry me."

Some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake.

I enjoy playing the audience like a piano.

[to Ingrid Bergman when she told him that she couldn't play a certain character the way he wanted because "I don't feel like that, I don't think I can give you that kind of emotion."] "Ingrid - fake it!"

I was an uncommonly unattractive young man.

It's only a movie, and, after all, we're all grossly overpaid.

There is nothing quite so good as a burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating.

Man does not live by murder alone. He needs affection, approval, encouragement and, occasionally, a hearty meal.

[About Claude Jade, who starred in Topaz (1969)] "Claude Jade is a brave nice young lady. But I don't give any guarantee what she will do on a taxi's back seat."

[On directing Charles Laughton] "You can't direct a Laughton picture. The best you can hope for is to referee."

The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book -- it makes a very poor doorstop.

Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders.

I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella (1937), the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.

If it's a good movie, the sound could go off and the audience would still have a perfectly clear idea of what was going on.

A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it.

In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director.

[regarding The Birds (1963)] "You know, I've often wondered what the Audubon Society's attitude might be to this picture."

Cary Grant is the only actor I ever loved in my whole life.

[Walt Disney] has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor he just tears him up.

Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.

I am scared easily, here is a list of my adrenaline-production: 1: small children, 2: policemen, 3: high places, 4: that my next movie will not be as good as the last one.

When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?, 'I say, 'Your salary.'

I don't understand why we have to experiment with film. I think everything should be done on paper. A musician has to do it, a composer. He puts a lot of dots down and beautiful music comes out. And I think that students should be taught to visualize. That's the one thing missing in all this. The one thing that the student has got to do is to learn that there is a rectangle up there - a white rectangle in a theater - and it has to be filled.

To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script.

[on North by Northwest (1959)] "Our original title, you know, was 'The Man in Lincoln's Nose'. Couldn't use it, though. They also wouldn't let us shoot people on Mount Rushmore. Can't deface a national monument. And it's a pity, too, because I had a wonderful shot in mind of Cary Grant hiding in Lincon's nose and having a sneezing fit."

I made a remark a long time ago. I said I was very pleased that television was now showing murder stories, because it's bringing murder back into its rightful setting - in the home.

I'm frightened of eggs, worse than frightened, they revolt me. That white round thing without any holes ... have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid? Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I've never tasted it. (on his lifelong fear of eggs - Ovophobia)

Fear isn't so difficult to understand. After all, weren't we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that frightened us yesterday. It's just a different wolf. This fright complex is rooted in every individual.

Steve

[vladpyre]

During the filming of "Lifeboat" the actress Mary Anderson asked Hitchcock which her best side was - he replied "My dear,you're sitting on it!"

[earlb]

I have an LP personally signed by the great man called appropiately 'Alfred Hitchcocks Music to be murdered by', he briefly opens each piece of music with a monologue and he describes the album as "Mood music in a jugular vein"

[donna]

Lucky man Earl you seem to have known all the right people. wonderful.

[NappieB]

Everytime I try to take a picture of my 9 cats sitting together to create unique Christmas card, I'm reminded of Hitchcock's truism:

"Never act with children or animals!"

[CaptainWaggett]

Originally Posted by NappieB Everytime I try to take a picture of my 9 cats sitting together to create unique Christmas card, I'm reminded of Hitchcock's truism: "Never act with children or animals!"

Isn't that usually attributed to WC Fields? It doesn't really make sense as a maxim of a director - after all, it's his choice who his actors work with!

[NappieB]

Now that you mention it, it doesn't make a lot of sense does it!

You must be right.... it was told to me years ago by a Hitchcock fan and I've never questioned the authenticity until this moment!

Thanks Capt. Waggett!!

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by CaptainWaggett Isn't that usually attributed to WC Fields? It doesn't really make sense as a maxim of a director - after all, it's his choice who his actors work with!

And the real reason he said it, apart from his apparent dislike of children and animals, was that it's so difficult to get a decent take from children or animals that they'll probably use the first one where they do roughly what they're meant to - which is often the one where the actor is at his worst

Steve

[Briant]

Here is a poem I wrote last year about Hitchcock called erm.. Hitchcock

I'm the Alfred Hitchcock of poetry and the written word
I appear in all of my stories you see, in the first person or the third
I know it may sound strange or even patently quite absurd
But then I'm the Alfred Hitchcock of poetry and the written word

Look out for me I travel locally but usually North by NorthWest
You might find me lurking in a churchyard, either damned or blest
Or behind the desk at the Bates Motel where Mother always knows best
So why not take the road just up ahead and put your nerves to the test

Even now I might be in mortal danger amongst the strangers on a train
Or screaming from behind the torn curtain like poor doomed Marion Crane
You might think that I'm the wrong man or the man who knew too much
And by the end of this story you may feel abandoned by the writer's touch

A Hitchcock Blonde will often appear wearing nothing but a Freudian slip
The Ice Maiden is sailing close to the wind and she won't go down with the ship
She may seem to be young and innocent but it's best to lift the veil
For all is not what it seems to be in this twice or thrice told tale

Have you spotted 'The MacGuffin' yet? Don't laugh
There was usually one in almost every film he made
In the mise-en-scene designed to lead you up the garden path
As Bernard Herrmann's haunting theme music was being played

Yes, I'm the man in the lifeboat that was spotted by the bird
For the lines between reality and fantasy are oft times rather blurred
So though it may sound totally insane or as if I'm running scared
Remember me, I'm the Alfred Hitchcock of poetry and the written word

Fade out

I am the pilot of the light airplane dusting where there are no crops
I am the saleslady serving Judy and Scottie in smart San Franciscan shops
I am the thread on the killer's coat giving way inch by inch until inevitably he drops
I am the train entering the tunnel that shudders and shakes until at last it stops

[Gazza]

To Jessica Tandy in The Birds (she had a fear of the birds flying up her skirt):

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"